news

March 11, 2018

My latest piece for orchestra Et tout le reste, inspired by Paul Verlaine‘s poetry (and in particular by his poem Art poétique) will be premiered at the Sala Verdi of the Conservatorio di Milano by the Orchestra Sinfonica del Conservatorio conducted by Amedeo Monetti. This piece is a commission of the Milan Conservatory. Here is Verlaine’s original poem:

The Spanish pianist Ricardo Descalzo played Then Sound, and Motion, and Touch at the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, within the Festival Barcelona Modern. He played both the piano and the electronic part (on the iPad), fully integrating acoustic and electroacoustic sounds in his interpretation.

December 3, 2017

Then Sound, and Motion, and Touch for prepared piano and iPad (granular synthesis) was premiered by Benedetto Boccuzzi and me at the URTIcanti Festival held in Bari, Italy. This piece is part of my ongoing series The Poe Project. It was also reshaped into a fully acoustic version for prepared piano and ensemble, titled Then Silence, and Stillness, and Night, premiered last June (see below for more information). Here is a presentation of the work:

The title is a quotation from Edgar Allan Poe’s tale The Pit and the Pendulum, set in a dungeon of the Spanish Inquisition. The tale’s main character explores the dark prison, searching for a way out. In absence of the sense of sight, it is hearing that guides the perception of time and space. Every single sound becomes an instrument of knowledge bringing more definition to the mental map of the place… but perception can be illusory. This piece is a nocturne, seen as “a piece set at night”: a dark space inhabited by sounds that shape different plausible dramaturgies.

My piece Come di luna for soprano and ensemble, set to a poem by Pier Paolo Pasolini, has been awarded the first prize at the XXVInternational Music Competition “Vittoria Caffa Righetti”.

October 2017

My piece Suite meteorologica (“Weather Suite”) for young pianists was awarded a special mention at the International Composition Competition “Ettore Pozzoli” 2017. This was the only piece in its category (5-8 years old) to obtain such award — no piece reported any major prize this year — and it will be performed at the 2018 Piano Competition “Il Pozzolino”. Suite meteorologica is part of an original new book for young pianists, prepared in collaboration with my former piano teacher Biancamaria Piantelli, that will be ready very soon! The provisional title is Pianisti senza note (“Pianists without notes”). Sounds cool, right?

October 8, 2017

I took part in a performance of butoh dance with live music at the Espressioni Film Festival at the Teatro S. Domenico in Crema, Italy. Here I played live electronics and… a mbira 🙂 Parts 1 and 2 of my ongoing audiovisual project Sensibilities are also screened throughout the festival (Oct. 7 to 20).

September 2017

Some good news! My piece Come di luna for soprano and ensemble was awarded a special mention at the National Prize for Arts (Premio Nazionale delle Arti) 2016.

September 2017

Now my little series of Déjà-vus (2010-11) is finally published at Ars Publica! N. 1 is for a percussion ensemble of student level, N. 2 is my most dadais piece, for violin and street sounds.

July 27, 2017

My last experimental short film Untitled. Hands on Canvas, made at the Kinokabaret in Lublin (Poland), was screened at the final event held on the beautiful Bridge of Culture. It is part of an ongoing project about the 5 senses titled Sensibilities: after the sense of sight (Vision), this is the sense of touch. Thanks to Abraham Weinrich for realising my choreography with such precision, and to Wojciech Olchowski for his help with camera and lights. See also the soundtrack page to watch the other short films made in Lublin featuring my music.

July 2, 2017

Alessandro Baldessari and I made an original soundtrack for Samuel Beckett‘s play Krapp’s Last Tape, performed at Teatro Binario 7 in Monza. Our music included both electroacoustic tracks and a live performance featuring Mohammadreza Bornak (setar) and Cecilia Santo (cello). Here is a review where you can find the video of a few moments of the show.

June 30, 2017

Vision, my abstract short video inspired by Diderot’s Encyclopédie, was selected for screening at the festival “A Minimal View” held in Padua from the 3rd to the 30th of June. This screenshot was also used as the main image of the festival.

June 9, 2017

My last piece Then Silence, and Stillness, and Night for prepared piano and ensemble was awarded the first prize at the “Premio del Conservatorio 2017”. It has been premiered by the mdi ensemble at the Milan Conservatory on June 9. The prize consists in 5.000 euros for the commission of an orchestral piece to be premiered next year. The awarded piece will be recorded and released on CD for the magazine “Suonare News”.

May 27, 2017

Happy to contribute to the final event of the Franco Agostino Teatro Festival in my home town Crema (Italy). Children and teenagers from local schools will move and dance to a few pieces of mine in different styles: an electronic groove, a dreamy piece, a ragtime. The final song, that will be sung by hundredths of children, is a playful remix of some Beethoven quotations such as Für Elise and the beginning of the 5th Symphony (lyrics by the amazing Nicola Cazzalini).

March 2017

My piece Déjà-vu 1 for percussion ensemble has been selected to be included in the Datenbank Neue Musik, a database for contemporary music listing works by contemporary composers which are suitable for school practice and ensemble work.

November 26, 2016

My video The Light-House is being screened at the Diffrazioni Festival in Florence at 10pm. Here is a short description of the work:

“The Light-House” is an experimental short film drawn upon the last, unfinished tale by Edgar Allan Poe. On Oct. 3, 1849 Poe was found in a street in Baltimora, in great distress and wearing clothes that were not his own. He died on Oct. 7, without having a chance to shed light on the causes of his death. According to his biographer Kenneth Silverman, between May and August 1849 Poe wrote 4 pages of the so-called “Griswold” manuscript, where the draft for this incomplete tale is found. It is in the form of a diary kept by the new lighthouse keeper, who has just arrived in such a remote and solitary place. The main aesthetic and cultural reference for my short film (for which I made both the audio and the video) is the silent cinema of the 1920s and 30s, and in particular its abstract and non-narrative experiments. The original text has been reduced to a few, significant excerpts that form a wandering and vague narrative, ending in the final dissolution. All images were made using home-made objects and old-fashioned optical special effects.

October 31, 2016

A new project: making live soundtracks for silent films! Together with the composer and performer Miguel Angel Frausto we made a new original soundtrack for Jean Epstein’s 1928 film La chute de la maison Usher. It was performed at a special event dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe, organised by the Amenic Cinema club in Crema. We played both electronic and acoustic instruments… including sound-making objects! Here is the trailer of our performance. The name of our duo is NOISE4EYES.

November 19, 2016

La ragazza Carla, the documentary by Alberto Saibene with my music, will be broadcast on the channel Rai Storiaat 10pm.

September 2016

My last musicological essay on Ligeti’s Etude White on White has been published on the online journal Analitica. The abstract can be found here. Enjoy!

August 5, 2016

My piece Haunted for amplified guitar has been played at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik by the wonderful Ruben Mattia Santorsa. Here is the live recording of the piece!

April 2016

A nice surprise in the mailbox: the printed edition of Déjà-vu 2 for violin and street sounds, by Ars Publica. Love the folding sheet!

March 21, 2016

Mahlers Fische, my divertissement for ensemble based on Mahler’s Lied Des Antonius Von Padua Fischpredigt, was included in a delightful concert featuring shadow puppets, held at the Milan Conservatory.

February 26, 2016

My piece Edgar’s Visions has been selected for an open rehearsal in Milan with the Ensemble Shallfeld, ensemble in residence at the 2016 Darmstadt International Summer Course. Can’t wait to hear the piece!

December 19, 2015

Good news! Today I am starting to work as a Professor of Harmony and Music Theory at the Conservatorio “Lorenzo Perosi” in Campobasso, Italy.

December 2015

The recording of my orchestral piece Buildings is now available on Soundcloud at this link. Thanks again to the orchestra and the conductor for the amazing job!

September 30, 2015

I have been selected by the Italian music journalist Paola Maugeri as an emerging talent for the interesting project My Music Coffee by the Sicilian coffee makers Moak. My music is currently associated with the “classic” coffee capsules, and it can be listened via a QR code.

Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 18:30, Libreria Feltrinelli in Napoli (Piazza dei Martiri) – I will be playing the selected piece Music Box and other recent music for piano and electronics!

September 18, 2015

The film “La ragazza Carla”, drawn upon a beautiful poem by Elio Pagliarani, is being premiered tonight at 21:30 at the Mare Culturale Urbano (via F.lli Zoia 10, Milano). Here is a very short bonus track from my original soundtrack, where the intense voice of the poet can be heard.

Working on the soundtrack for the film “La ragazza Carla” by Alberto Saibene. This is my very portable studio: a MacBook Pro for the editing in Logic Pro X, an audio interface, a keyboard, an iPad with a few supercool music apps, headphones and monitors.

February 5, 2015

My orchestral piece Buildingswon the annual call for scores at the Conservatory of Milano. It will be premiered at the Sala Verdi by the Orchestra Sinfonica del Conservatorio. The invited conductor is the wonderful Tito Ceccherini! The concert programme is found here.

October 24, 2014

My electroacoustic piece Santa Barbara Portraits, selected as a finalist in the 2014 Luigi Russolo Contest, was awarded the Gianfranco Maffina Mention for the innovation in the composition. It was played in the final concert at the MACBA in Barcelona on Oct. 24 (Festival LEM). It will also be played at the Studio Forum acousmonium during the Le Bruit de la Neige Festival, and it will receive airplay on the Música i Geografia and Música i Química radio programmes, on Barcelona’s FM frequency, Radio France, Radio Libertaire (Paris), … The piece will also be included in a CD to be released by Monochromevision (Moscow) in Jan. 2015.